The rest of our team, Martha Raddatz in Washington, Jon Karl traveling with the president and, Jon, let me begin with you. In those remarks, the president laid out a bold goal and said the bottom line the U.S. Goal is to degrade and destroy Isis as a threat. Reporter: That's right, George. Very definitively this is beyond where he's gone but there seemed to be a mixed message. When he was asked to clarify if he was now saying the U.S. Wants to destroy Isis, he backtracked significantly saying we can continue to shrink Isis' sphere of influence to the point where it is a manageable problem. So in the course of one set of remarks, he went from talking about destroying this terrorist group to making it into a manageable problem. Martha Raddatz, so many believe you can only take on Isis if you go into Syria but the president making very clear today that he is not going to move forward with a dramatic expansion without a broad coalition. Reporter: One of the things you heard the president say again this morning the need to build that regional coalition, but the key really is Syria and it is hard to see how the U.S. Does not eventually launch air strikes there, given what the president said today, even though as Jon says there was a bit of a mixed message but the chairman of the joint Steves of staff has said in order to defeat Isis, you have deal with the situation in Syria. That is where Isis has a safe haven right now. That is where military options are being presented to the president even though he has not made a final decision. And, Martha, we also learned overnight that the United States is sending 350 new troops to Iraq. Reporter: The extra 350 U.S. Forces are being sent for additional security at the embassy and the airport. But this tells you there is increasing worry that Isis is intent on going after Americans and they want to make sure embassy employees are safe or can get out of there if needed, George. Jon, part of the reason the president is pushing back against Russian aggression in the Ukraine, there's conflicting reports about a cease-fire. Reporter: A statement out of the president of Ukraine's office suggesting they've worked out a cease-fire with the Russians but a denial from Vladimir Putin's office and the president was directly asked about this and said it's simply too early to tell but not a lot of confidence in this. The president himself pointed out that previous talk of cease-fire has failed because the Russians have violated or P pretended they have nothing to do can with what's going on in Ukraine.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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